CIA Boosts Vaccination Conspiracies

cyberhog

Resistance to vaccination gained much momentum in the wake of 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. In Nigeria and Pakistan, at least, Muslim clerics have taken on roles to spread rumors that America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were part of a wider war on Islam. In 2003, religious leaders in Nigeria led the resistance to vaccination campaigns by spreading rumors that the shots were in fact sterilization drugs, part of a Western conspiracy to reduce African birthrates. In 2007, Taliban clerics in Pakistan also joined the anti-vaccination campaigns. Resistance also developed in extremely poor areas in Uttar Pradesh in India. It took a tremendous effort from the World Health Organization to reach out to religious authorities to dismiss these misconceptions.

And now these efforts are jeopardized by the CIA’s polio vaccine plot in Pakistan.

Shiran Shen fpif.org

MOHABATABAD, Pakistan—The United Nations says a reportedly fake vaccination campaign conducted to help hunt down Osama bin Laden has caused a backlash against international health workers in some parts of Pakistan and has impeded efforts to wipe out polio in the country.

...

Usman Khan, an official at the National Research Development Foundation, a Pakistani nongovernment organization, says he tried to draw up a list of prominent clerics in Mardan to get them to issue a decree that vaccinations are allowed under Islam. Instead, the clerics accused him of spying for the U.S.

"The fake vaccination campaign used to locate Osama bin Laden has given fodder to already antagonistic clerics in conservative areas to dub us as U.S agents and raise doubts among people about the use of vaccine. It has been a tough battle against illiteracy, misconceptions, and poverty," he said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204190504577038781784474056.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews


The WHO says "As long as a single child remains infected with polio, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the disease."

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs114/en/

Clearly, the CIA let their determination to get their man cloud their judgement. For them to employ such a ruse in a polio-endemic country is beyond despicable.

Jonny7

Oh I am sure the hunt for Bin Laden has had many more victims than we'll ever know. Its a disgusting murky business.

Still, never let up an opportunity to bash the "great satan".

matthew8

I try to avoid newly developed vaccinations generally, but I don't think it's a conspiracy.

cyberhog

Jonny7 wrote: »

Oh I am sure the hunt for Bin Laden has had many more victims than we'll ever know. Its a disgusting murky business.

You've gotta work on your feigned disgust a little more...that wasn't convincing enough...

Jonny7

cyberhog wrote: »

You've gotta work on your feigned disgust a little more...that wasn't convincing enough...

Oh I was once this way myself - no dictator, no action, no event could possibly be worse than US or Israeli foreign policy. The world has to know the hideous evil hypocrisy! etc, etc

Black Swan

MOD COMMENT:
There is a special forum for CT topics like "CIA Boosts Vaccination Conspiracies." It will be shortly moved to the CT forum. It will be moved locked, so that the CT mods may review it for appropriateness.

Penn

Okay, I'll re-open this and see how it goes. If you're new to the forum, please read the forum charter before posting. Thanks.

cyberhog

Black Swan wrote: »

MOD COMMENT:
There is a special forum for CT topics like "CIA Boosts Vaccination Conspiracies." It will be shortly moved to the CT forum. It will be moved locked, so that the CT mods may review it for appropriateness.

Sorry, it seems you have not understood the title correctly.

The CIA's ruse to confirm Bin Laden's whereabouts is not a conspiracy theory.

Officials familiar with the bin Laden operation say the CIA did indeed institute a mock vaccine program with a local doctor who had previously been an informant in the tribal areas. The plan was to obtain DNA from residents of the Abbottabad compound as they got a vaccine injection, helping confirm bin Laden's presence there.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204190504577038781784474056.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews

What happens is that some fundamentalist religious leaders concoct conspiracies about the vaccination programs but what the CIA have done is stoke those conspiracy theories with real fuel.

So could a mod move this topic back please because it doesn't actually belong in this forum.

TIA